Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda did not invite Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis to the bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is visiting Lithuania on Wednesday.
Landsbergis met Zelensky at the Vilnius Airport where he landed on Wednesday morning but did not attend the meeting at the Presidential Palace because he was not invited, said Paulina Levickytė, the foreign minister’s spokesperson.
The meeting at the Presidential Palace was attended by Lithuanian Defence Minister Arvydas Anušauskas, Lithuanian Ambassador to Ukraine Valdemaras Sarapinas, as well as the president’s advisers.
“The meeting of the presidents of Lithuania and Ukraine focused on military assistance,” Nausėda’s spokesperson Ridas Jasiulionis told the ELTA news agency.
“The issues of providing military assistance, training of Ukrainian soldiers, cooperation in the military industry, and demining of Ukrainian territories were discussed. This is why Defence Minister Anušauskas was invited to the meeting,” he added.
According to representatives of the ruling Homeland Union-Lithuanian Cristian Democrats (TS-LKD), led by Landsbergis, the decision not to invite the foreign minister to the bilateral meeting is not normal.
“This is not normal. I think it is disrespectful to the state and to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who is in Zelensky’s delegation. Meanwhile, our president does not bother to invite the Lithuanian counterpart. It seems strange,” Radvilė Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė, the elder of the TS-LKD political group in the Seimas, told LRT.lt.
According to her, the protocols foresee that foreign ministries of both countries should be present at the meeting.
“There are certainly various thoughts as to why the president wants to retain such a monopoly. This decision is one that, in my opinion, does not do honour to Lithuania as a state,” she said.
In recent weeks, the President’s Office and the Foreign Ministry have been at odds regarding the appointment of an ambassador to Poland, a crucial political partner of Lithuania.
According to the ministry, at least two excellent candidates have been rejected by the president. The President’s Office, meanwhile, says the head of state would like to see a full list of candidates considered for the position.
Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė did not speculate whether this disagreement was the reason why Landsbergis was not invited to the meeting with the Ukrainian delegation at the Presidential Palace.
“I don’t know,” Landsbergis told reporters on Wednesday when asked why he was not invited to the meeting.
“This is not a démarche on my part, it is not my decision that I am not there,” he added.
The foreign minister also refused to comment on whether the President’s Office was breaching diplomatic practice by not inviting him to the meeting
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